Tag Archives: KAS Eupen

Sunday 26th February 2017 – IT WAS HARD THIS MORNING …

… to get out of bed, what with my very late finish and my usual early (like 07:00) start – how my habits have changed since I’ve been living in digs.

I was alone at breakfast too, which is just as well because as you all know, I don’t do “company” first thing in the morning. Anyone who tries to chat to me just receives a collection of unintelligible grunts in reply.

Back down here, I had a brief (and only a brief) relax while I drank my coffee, and then I set to work.

And by 10:00 I had another couple of bags packed to take down to Caliburn. Now my room is looking much more like TS Eliot’s Wasteland..

Having done all of that, I came back and had a shower, and the last of my clean clothes (in fact, I didn’t have a clean T-shirt). So this obviously meant a visit to the launderette in the Ridderstraat. There were so many clothes that some of them didn’t make it into the machine and so they will have to go into the next load, whenever that might be. I’ve clearly not been keeping on top of things like I should and I’ll have to organise myself much more than this.

Once all of that was done, it was lunchtime. I had a packet onion soup hanging around and two of these half-cooked half-baguettes. One of those was for my garlic bread tonight, and so I cooked them both and had the other one with my soup. Followed, of course, by some fruit.

Plenty of time left yet, and so I loaded up another big pile of stuff, and by 15:00 I was ready to hit the streets. I dropped off everything at Caliburn yet again, and then carried on my little walk

football stadion den dreef OH Leuven union st gilles belgium 26 february fevrier 2017Today is the last match of the regular season for OH Leuven. Long-since condemned to a place in the relegation play-offs with no escape, due to a few insipid results, they were playing for pride.

Union St Gilles are a couple of places above them and if other results go their way, a victory for them could haul themselves out of the relegation dog-fight and into safety. It’s therefore vital for Union St Gilles to win today

All of the matches in the Second Division are kicking off simultaneously at 16:00 this afternoon so that no-one can be assured of their place until the final whistle.

mascot football stadion den dreef OH Leuven union st gilles belgium 26 february fevrier 2017It seems that this mascot craze is spreading to all football clubs in Belgium right now. OH Leuven looks as if they have managed to acquire one too.

Somehow I thought it appropriate to take a photograph of him behind a sturdy wire-mesh fence – almost as if he was in a cage.

But never mind acquiring mascots – when is the club going to acquire some cheerleaders? That’s what I want to know.

away supporters football stadion den dreef OH Leuven union st gilles belgium 26 february fevrier 2017The “away” end was heaving with fans. So packed out wasit in there that they had to open a second bay behind the goal. They were a noisy lot too, and kept the noise going for the whole 90 minutes more or less.

There was a huge crowd in here for the match too (for Leuven, that is). 4,263 spectators and that’s the largest crowd that I’ve witnessed for a match here at the Den Dreef Stadion, and it’s not ALL accounted for by the huge away support. Everyone else must feel the urgency too.

football stadion den dreef OH Leuven union st gilles belgium 26 february fevrier 2017As the teams took to the field the away fans started some kind of synchronised sign-boarding display. I’ve absolutely no idea what it was supposed to signify, but they were clearly quite happy to do it.

But anyway, the teams took to the field with OH leuven in their usual all-white strip, and Union St Gilles in their usual yellow shirts and blue shorts.

And as the match kicked off, the first question that I asked myself was “how much longer can they keep on going at this pace?” because they shot off like rockets.

And one thing that I’ve noticed about Belgian Second Division football is that wingers are very popular. We know all about the wingers that OH Leuven have, and Union St Gilles were well-supplied too.

The big difference today though is that OH Leuven had Casagolda up front instead of Kostovski. Casagolda is technically a far better player, but he has his “days”. Kostovski is like a big battering ram, a bit short on technical skill but plays at 100% for every match and the kind of player I would like to have up front when the team has two wingers.

But as I said, Casagolda has his “days”, and luckily enough, today was one of them, even putting in a ferocious performance in the centre of defence at set pieces, and this made a great deal of difference.

As the game progressed, despite the barrage of noise from the Union St Gilles supporters, it was clear that OH Leuven had the “up”, not that it means very much in football because I’ve seen superior teams well on top in a game be undone by one single moment of magic, and OH Leuven can have some notoriously fragile moments. And when they missed a penalty, I really did fear the worst.

In the first half, they had hit the post twice, had about four shots on goal kicked off the line, and the keeper had made two outstanding saves. And much to my surprise, they were 2-0 up too. Both of them breakaways from out of defence, wingers racing off down the field, and crosses into the centre. And Casagolda had scored one of them.

As for Union St Gilles, they pressed well down the flanks and their n°20, Aguemon, particularly impressed me. But their problem was that they lacked a centre-forward who would throw himself about in where it hurts – someone like Kostovski for example.

I reckoned that whoever scored the first goal in the second half would decide where this match was going to end, but the players, clearly exhausted, played at a much slower tempo. Storm, this new winger that they had signed who had such a good game the last time that I saw him, he fell away quite rapidly – clearly not match-fit for this level – and I reckoned that he’d be one of the first to leave the field – which he was.

Casagolda had the ball in the net, sure enough, but was given offside – a decision with which I agreed, by the way – and the Union St Gilles keeper made a couple of other full-length saves to keep the ball out.

But Union St Gilles couldn’t find a way back into the game, even though this new keeper, Henkinet, made a brilliant one-handed save from a point-blank header that had “goal” written all over it.

And that was that – a huge sigh of relief at the final whistle as Leuven finally register a win. And if only they had played like this in a couple of other matches, they wouldn’t have to be pitting their wits against clubs like Dessel Sports and Deinze in the relegation play-offs. In fact, either of these clubs could have taken on KSC Lokeren and KAS Eupen from last night in the Premier League and disposed of them quite comfortably

begijnhof hotel Leuven belgium 26 february fevrier 2017On the way back I found a new short-cut that I hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t that short, in fact, but it was certainly a prettier way to come home.

This by the way isn’t a medieval building, but it’s fairly modern and is actually a hotel, the Begijnhof Leuven Hotel. And if modern architects in Belgium can come up with buildings like this, then there’s no reason whatever why they can’t do this anywhere else either.

I’m going to make further enquiries …

Back here, I hadn’t been sitting down long before I was overwhelmed with hunger. It might have been only 19:00, long before tea-time, but nevertheless there was nothing for it – I went and made my pizza. And for once, everything was cooked perfectly and it was thoroughly delicious.

Now, it’s 21:00 or so and I can’t keep my eyes open. I have a lot to do over the course of the next few days, so I’m planning on going to bed.

Saturday 25th February 2017 – IT’S THE START …

crocus krokus botanical garden kruidtuin jardin botanique leuven belgium february fevrier 2017 … of the Krokusvakantie here in Belgium this week. That’s the school half-term, and while it might be known as “Carnaval” in the French-speaking areas of the country, you can see why it has its name around here in Flanders, can’t you?

On my travels and I had a walk back from Caliburn through the Kruidtuin – the Botanical Gardens here in Leuven and the flowers are well and truly blooming today, aren’t they?

If you ask me what kind of flowers they are, I would say that they were mauve ones, because I know nothing whatever abut flowers, so they might not even be crocuses at all, but whatever they are, they are quite prettu.

So what was I doing at Caliburn then? And not once today but twice too.

In fact, I’ve made a start on emptying my room out reading for (hopefully) leaving on Tuesday if all goes according to plan.

new facade brusselsestraat leuven belgium february fevrier 2017But first surprise of the day was that the crane on the corner of the Brusselsestraat and the Kruisstraat has now disappeared. Work seems to have finished on the facade of the building across the road.

And what a good job they seem to have made of it too. I imagine that they’ve re-pointed the brickwork and sealed the joints underneath the roof, and now they’ve added some tiles to the wall to weatherproof it.

All in all, it loks very impressive from here

And so after yet another bad night, I was once more alone at breakfast (which suite me fine) although my garrulous Dutch/Russian friend did stick his head around the corner to make himself a coffee – I really am not up to social conversation at 07:00.

But after a relax downstairs in my room, I set to work.

It was a case of going through everything that I have here and deciding upon its priority – am I likely to be using it between now and a week on Tuesday (and there are reasons for this particular date)? And if not, I started to load it up into a couple of IKEA bags that I had lying around. That includes most of the food for a start – no reason for most of that to be hanging around for a start. And books, and bottles of pop and the like. I remember thinking when I was in Sedan back in November that I would buy just enough stuff for the first month of my stay. Here I am, three months in, and I haven’t eaten half of it.

Once I was loaded up, I set off to Caliburn to deposit it all, and then down to the Carfefour by the football ground for the stuff for pizza night tomorrow.

A little deviation (and I’m always up for a little deviation as you know) through the Kruidtuin to see the crocuses and then back here, via the Supermarket on the corner. And there’s a thing – there were plenty of black plastic boxes of the sort that I had been liberating, but all stacked up neatly at the back of the warehouse. My response is that if they don’t want people to liberate them, they shouldn’t leave them outside by the bins.

After lunch, we had another session of loading up the IKEA bags, and then after a brief pause I went back down to Caliburn with the stuff and deposited it there.

While I had been having a relax just now, I was idly scanning the internet. And something that I saw gave me an idea – I have plenty of ideas, don’t I? Furthermore, a little research on the internet proved that it was a feasible proposition too. Thus I had a quick coffee, and hit the streets.

sncb electric multiple unit Antwerp Berchem railway station belgium february fevrier 2017Here I am, at the Antwerp Berchem railway station on the south side of the city, waiting for the train to Gent and Oostende which is just a-cumen in.

But I’m not going to either of these places.

Somewhere just after St Niklaas is the small town of Lokeren. It’s a place that I’ve never ever visited before and seeing as how I’m hoping to be on my way in early course, now seemed to be the right kind of time to deal with that issue

No derailments today – we were in luck – but we had to take a different track out of the station. My luck was in, for this one took us close to the carriage sidings and I had a good view of something that had caught my eye away in the distance on several occasions.

elderly vintage diesel sncb multiple unit leuven belgium february fevrier 2017It’s actually a very sorry example of the first-generation Continental multiple units, one of the ones that you used to see painted red and cream that used to wander over the French SNCF and presumably Belgian SNCB rail networks in the &950s

Mind you, this is just one of the driving carriages of a multiple unit set and it has long-since lost the colours that it might have carried on the SNCB. But it’s beautiful all the same and I wonder what it’s doing here.

And more to the point, why no-one has seen fit to rescue it. I’d take it home with me in a heartbeat.

daknamstadion KSC Lokeren KAS Eupen belgium 25 february fevrier 2017No prizes for guessing why I’ve come to Lokeren, is there?

I owe myself a football match from last weekend, what with the train derailment in Leuven, this match is a Belgian Jupiler Pro League (the equivalent of a Premier League match).

I’ve never been to Lokeren, never seen either of the clubs play, and KAS Eupen was on of the teams on my list of clubs to see

The ground is only a 20-minute walk from the railway station, and that means that if I exert myself and the game finishes on time, I could catch the 22:17 to St Niklaas, change for a train to Mechelen, and then catch a train from there to Brussels and then on to Leuven.

If I missed it, there is a train at 23:11 in the other direction to Gent St Pieters and then the last train from there to Leuven, getting me back to the railway station at Leuven at about 01:00.

That sounded like a plan.

daknamstadion KSC Lokeren KAS Eupen belgium 25 february fevrier 2017I found the Daknamstadion easily enough – it was quite straightforward, rather like the walk that we have made so often to het Lisp at Lier. And the stadium resembled that at Lier too. They must order them off the peg or something like that, I reckon.

I had a cheap seat (€18:00 for a Premier League match) behind the goal, but in a corner where I wouldn’t be hemmed in by chanting supporters.

But they were up at the far end in the standing bit, with the away supporters right next to them. That’s bizarre crowd segregation, I can say.

mascot daknamstadion KSC Lokeren KAS Eupen belgium 25 february fevrier 2017But … tragedy! We had the mascot, not that he was up to very much of course, but there were no cheerleaders!

All this way on the train and not a single cheerleader to be seen anywhere. how disappointing is that? I had a good mind to go and ask for my money back.

But at least it’s a Premier League match, so entertainment and excitement was sure to be guaranteed, wasn’t it?

daknamstadion KSC Lokeren KAS Eupen belgium 25 february fevrier 2017But right from the kick-off, I could tell that this match was going to be something completely different.

Because if ever there are two more inept teams as these playing anywhere in the top flight of any football league anywhere else in the world (and I include Rockall and the Lofoten Islands in this) I just wouldn’t believe it.

These two teams were totally clueless from start to finish, and I mean every word of that. If this was a Premier League match, then God help them all

daknamstadion KSC Lokeren KAS Eupen belgium 25 february fevrier 2017KAS eupen had a player sent off after about 20 minutes – what for, I couldn’t really see. And KSC Lokeren scored a penalty during the match – a rather strict penalty if you ask me.

But KAS Eupen scored two goals, even being 1 man down. And that’s not an idication of how good they were, it’s an indication of how totally inept KSC Lokeren were.

KAS Eupen’s two goals were a breakaway down the wing, a cross into the centre and a rather hopeful volley from about 20 yards out, and a ricochet off the referee that dropped nicely for an Eupen player to hoist over the wall into space where there was a team-mate running on
.

daknamstadion KSC Lokeren KAS Eupen belgium 25 february fevrier 2017KAS Eupen hit the post too, and their keeper made five or six magnificent saves too.

In fact, the KAS Eupen keeper, Hendrik Van Crombrugge, was by far and away the best player on the pitch. The KSC Lokeren n°14, Mehdi Terki, had a good game, but I wouldn’t have given you twopence for the remainder.

And if you want to see the … errr … highlights of the match, they are now on-line. But it beats me how they managed to find 8 minutes of them. I’m on the far right of the screen at 04:34 – in the bright yellow coat.

Despite the late start ond the 4 minutes of injury time, I put on such a turn of speed that not only was I comortably in time for the 22:17, the earlier 22:11 for Gent St Pieters. I hopped on board – and wasn’t that a fatal mistake?

Yes, everyone would expect that with almost all trains running at one-hour intervals, then all trains would run at one-hour intervals. That is almost true, and the only exception is the express train from Oostende across to Welkenraedt (that goes through Leuven), and that runs at 90-minute intervals. And so the train that I had caught arrived in Gent 20 minutes after the previous one had left, and the next one was the one that I would have caught had I come here on the 23:11 from Lokeren. In other words, being early at Lokeren station had made me as late as it is possible to be.

gent st pieters railway station belgium 25 february fevrier 2017So here I was in Gent, stranded yet again with well over an hour to wait for the train. At least it gave me an opportunity to go for a stroll around in the late evening.

The station really does look magnificent in the urban light, like most of these beautiful Victorian piles, except that it isn’t a Victorian pile. The railway station that was here was nothing spectacular, apparently, but when they announced that they would be holding the 1913 World’s Fair here, they designed and built a railway station building to suit the aims and the ambitions of the Fair

gent st pieters railway station belgium 25 february fevrier 2017The interior is fairly spectacular, had it been allowed to settle in its own surroundings, but it was partitioned off into shops, full of coin machines and people sleeping all over the place. I was rather disappointed.

I sat there with the bag of fritjes that I had bought from the fritkot across the square until my train arrived.

It was almost 01:00 when I arrived at the station here, and about 01:45 when I returned here. Cold, tired and exhausted.

I went straight to bed, and straight to sleep too. It was late.